Hallo alle,
I've been trying to start this blog entry about the second week since Monday, it is currently Wednesday. That might give you an indication of how this week has been! We'll start from where we left off last week; Saturday night and the second night of Stadtfest. It was so beautiful. We all took our cameras and took a ton of pictures. Stadtfest was magical, spanning the Elbe with a ton of things to do. We rode the Ferris wheel (it was pretty expensive, but I think well worth it) and I took some nice aerial pictures of Dresden at night. We also saw some beautiful fireworks (although Boston's were better) and generally had a great night outside walking around historic Dresden. Then on Sunday I lazed about, the usual for the school year. Zeynep did laundry and we discovered Europeans don't really believe in dryers, which is annoying as all get out.
Monday started off pretty warm, but the weather has slowly gotten worse this week. I'm trying to remember specific instances from each day, but honestly it's pretty difficult. Most of the week blurs together, as it does when I'm at Boston. I know I kept meaning to write this blog entry for most of last week, It is nice to only have class Montag-Donnerstag (Mon-Thurs), but having it from 8:00-1:00 and then culture class 2:00-3:30 is exhausting. I don't know how I got through four years of high school on basically 6 hours of sleep a night. We had our first quiz in German last week, and I did alright. The spelling is very tricky (although I'm sure literally everyone who learns English says the same thing). I did a bit of shopping last week for more essentials (laundry detergent, etc.) and that was fun. It was good to get our stipend money so I didn't feel as bad about spending it. I'm trying to be careful and manage my money so I don't have to use any (more) of my own to travel.
Speaking of travel, we had our second group outing on Friday. We went to Weimar, which is a beautiful little town in the middle(ish) of Saxon Germany. The train ride there took four hours (it was supposed to take a little over two) because there were some electrical problems, but more seriously a man committed suicide on the tracks in front of us, so most of the trains were shut down for a while. It was very frustrating and also a little bit of a somber note. What was worse was that we had all gone out Thursday night to a dance club (ladies get a free drink on Thursday!) and stayed out very late and we left the dorm at 7:30, an unholy hour for anyone under the age of 30. The trip was very awesome though, I took a ton of pictures.
*SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE BORED WITH A TON OF GERMAN HISTORY*
Weimar is basically this tiny town in Saxony that the Duke realized wouldn't be important geopolitically, so he decided to make it a haven for the arts. First, Carl August (the Duke) invited Goethe to live in Weimar and gave him a summer home and some land so he could become a citizen of the Duchy. Goethe isn't really a super popular name in the U.S., but he wrote the original "Faust" story (a deal with the devil) that has been seen as a theme in many other works. He was also quite famous in his own time for a novel about a young man with unrequited love (he ends up killing himself, aren't German tales so sweet?). He also wrote plays and did a bunch of stuff of the Duchy and maybe had an affair with a person in the royal court (it was only 160 people, word got around) and then went off to Italy and fell in love with a girl and refused to marry her until 18 years after his son was born (SCANDALOUS). Goethe actually had a pretty big head about how important he was, so he left detailed instructions in his will to make his house into a museum when the line ended (with his grandson). I really wanted to walk through because Goethe had really interesting ideas about color (colors were linked to an activity, eating, sleeping, working, etc.) but because the train ride there took so long we didn't have time. The other neat part of the town was the Hotel Elephant, which has been used since the 1800's. What was crazy was that Weimar attracted a lot of artists and free-thinkers, but it was still a seat of the Nazi party. The Hotel Elephant was rebuilt by Hitler in the early 1930's, and he included a special balcony from which he could address the people. It was so eerie to see the balcony and recognize it from old black and white photos. The other weird thing was a memorial the Soviets built to the soldiers that died in Weimar (after the conflict, they probably died of sickness/age) during the GDR. Also, the tour guide told us that the Soviets used Buchenwald and Dachau (concentration/work camps) for the same purpose as the Nazis until the FIFITES. People on the other side of the Iron Curtain didn't even know that it was happening! The history here is amazing and so fascinating to me. The return train trip was uneventful, thank heavens.
Saturday I spent most of the day exploring Dresden with my friend Zeynep. We took the tram across the bridge to Neustadt, and then walked across a different bridge over the Elbe and took pictures of the skyline/us in the skyline. It was rainy, but when it cleared it was very beautiful. I loved walking around and seeing all the different buildings. We took some pictures in front of the Frauenkirche, which I know I've talked about before. It's crazy to think that the building is literally only as old as I am (the ruins weren't repaired by the GDR because commies have no religion). It's such beautiful sandstone, and Zeynep and I got to see inside too, but we couldn't go in or take pictures because there was a wedding. We're gonna try to go to a concert there because we saw that the cheapest tickets were only like 12 euro. It's so hard to do everything we want while we're here! The planning has my head spinning, and I'm awesome at planning. But we'll get to that later.
Sunday was a lazy day of course, and the rest of this week has been pretty unremarkable (sans the whole in-Germany thing). Monday was karaoke night at the student bar, and that was a ton of fun. I think the Germans liked watching us make spectacles of ourselves, but they proceeded to do the same thing! We've been trying to plan all week where we're going for Zeynep's birthday (October 13th's weekend). We want to go to Amsterdam, but there are no cheap flights then. Zeynep says that she hates flying, but here (like the US) it is both easier and way cheaper to fly than take the train. Flights to Amsterdam from Berlin take 2 ish hours and cost 19 euro. FLYING FOR $25!!! Crazy, crazy times. So since we can't go to Amsterdam for her actual birthday, we might spend that weekend in Budapest, because she really wants to see it. We also have a week (ten days including both weekends) around Thanksgiving time (well, a week before) and I think we're going either going to do Dublin/London/Edinburgh or Paris/Barcelona or try to go to Greece. I have no idea, honestly. More immediate travel plans include going on group excursions to Berlin (an hour north) and Prague (an hour south)...I love Europe. So close together! Hopefully we'll have our stuff for Oktoberfest set soon, as it actually starts the second week in September and goes to the first weekend in October. I also really want to go to a football game (soccer) in Munich, because everyone loves FC Bayern Munchen! I have a friend who'll be visiting Monaco for a few weeks, and I'd love to go see him at some point, but there is only so much time in four months. I still don't know how I feel about staying here longer, it stinks that there is so little time until Christmas, but this is also a huge opportunity. It's just all up in the air, right now. Hopefully this weekend will bring some more definite plans.
Well, I have a giant test tomorrow, so I'll write about our prison-turned church-turned school another time! Guten Nacht, und ich vermisse ihr!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
First Week
Wow, this has been insane. I'm not sure my thoughts will come out in an organized manner, but I'll try to keep it chronological. I haven't really been taking pictures, but I will once the weekends starts and I get my bearings enough to walk around with only a few people. I hate being in a huge group of 35+ and taking pictures. I have a few now from our walk around Aldstadt and some pictures of my room.
So the adventure began on Sunday. I woke up and hurried around getting my shit together to take the Megabus at 7:30. I ate McDonalds for breakfast and messed around on the computer on the free WiFi. The bus ride took about five hours, so we got into NYC at 12:30. I didn't have much time to enjoy the city (although, to be honest, it scares me shitless) because I hopped in a cab to take me to JFK. It was a long and boring car ride, and I texted friends goodbye through most of it. I got to the airport at around 1:30. While I was waiting in line to check my bags, I ran into Janhavee, a girl from a class first semester who is also on my program. She invited me to eat lunch with her family in JFK's food court, which was fun. Then I went through security while she said goodbye to her family. I got to my gate with 2+ hours to spare, so I called Ma and Dad, talked to Anthony and Laurel for a bit. As the time to board got closer, I met a lot of people in my program. We had a fun time talking about how none of us know German.
Then the first plane ride. Our flight was from JFK to Munchen (Munich) then Munchen to Dresden. JFK to Munchen is nine hours in the air, plus take off/landing time. It was easily the biggest plan I've ever been on. The great part about the flight was that it was not full by any means, I had a bank of three seats all to myself. I slept for a few hours, but then I couldn't (despite getting four hours of sleep the night before), so I watched three movies. We got to the Munchen airport at six AM GT (German Time). We waited for our connecting flight for literally three and a half hours. It was terrible. Then we got onto a smaller plane and flew into Dresden. It was now 12:30 PM, and I had been awake for 30 hours on four hours of sleep beforehand. Needless to say, everyone in our group was exhausted. We all wanted to sleep away our jet lag. But we had other plans.
We did some basic orientation things: here are the keys to your dorms (the doors lock automatically, do NOT leave your keys in the room), etc. etc. My room is actually the best on the floor (and the best in the program, as far as I've seen). We all live in singles, and most rooms are clearly singles: there is room for a bed, a desk, a dresser, a tall bookshelf, and a small table and chair. My room was definitely meant to be a double. I have all my furniture on one side and it looks NAKED. I told all the girls on my floor we could have one side of my room as a sort of common room. I hope they take me up on it; I enjoy studying and eating in groups. Hopefully some of the other people in our program not on our floor (we're on the second, third, and fifth floors of the Max Kade Haus). The rest of Monday is a very tired blur. We went to the free room where previous participants left the things they weren't taking back (duvets, books, hangers, trash cans and the like). I rearranged my furniture the way I wanted it, and unpacked. Most people went out to the bar that is in our dorm (Germans), but I knew I was too tired, so I slept for close to thirteen hours.
Tuesday morning, I was woken at seven by a church bell. Not just seven chimes of a church bell, easily over a MINUTE of it ringing. My RA Debbie says that it does that every week day, and rings at 9:30 on the weekends. I will never sleep in ever again. Tuesday was a busy, busy day. We registered as foreign students with the city of Dresden (Germany LOVES paperwork, apparently), and opened a bank account in Dresden so our stipends can be deposited (which is good...so poor). We ate lunch at a Menza (cafeteria), that reminded me of an American cafeteria almost exactly. The two differences were that you paid per item, and the background chatter was in German. We also paid our security deposits, then I took a nap, then we went to Ikea (pronounced EE-KAY-AH here). I bought some necessary things for me (another towel, a duvet cover, a blanket, a pillow) and took the tram. The trains here are nicer than anything I've ever seen in the US. They are clean, quiet, perfectly on time (they have a display screen telling you when every number bus/tram is coming), and a super-smooth ride. Tuesday everyone went out again, and this time I was up to it. I drank a few beers at the bar and headed home. I was still tired, and funny thing, alcohol doesn't help that at all!
Wednesday I woke up late, but luckily my group waited for me as I threw on jeans and a sweater. We went back to campus to listen to "Health and Safety," your standard college bullshit about not being irresponsible. I get irritated at listening to things like that, but I know that some people need to hear them. We got our student handbooks, which our director Silke made for us. They have a TON of useful information. What the city of Dresden has to offer, what TUD has, all the dates of our group excursions (I won't give you a list, it'll spoil the surprise!) and a ton of good phrases for different situations (bank, buying a train ticket). Silke is the BEST. She is such a sweet lady and you can tell she wants us to love it here. It's very funny because I'm used to university bureaucrats at BU saying "I'll get that done for you" and then it takes two weeks. When Silke says she'll get something done for us, she does it three hours later! Love that about Germans. We ate at another Menza, and I had German schnitzel for the first time. Everyone said it wasn't as good as restaurant schnitzel (cafeteria food is the same globally, haha), but I thought it was tasty. I'm still getting used to eating more at lunch than dinner. We then had a really, really long walking tour of TUD. It's the oldest technical university in Germany, and the campus is monstrous. The walk from our dorm (Max Kade Haus) to the classroom buildings is easily forty minutes. Some people want to get bikes, but I think I'm just going to suck it up and work on my calf muscles. We got back from the tour and just hung out for a while, then me and two friends went to a CVS-like store (called dm) because I forgot conditioner and they wanted hand soap. We went to the grocery store and then had a group dinner. That was a lot of fun. We came back, went to the bar for a little while, then called it a night. I think people were still pretty jet-lagged, but it was mostly gone by Thursday morning.
Thursday I woke up ridiculously late because I kept getting woken up at six and seven by huge, loud garbage trucks and sirens and general noise. I did some organizing, then we took special "biometric" pictures for our student IDs. They were freaking expensive, which is annoying because I am poor. Then we did a little grocery shopping and ate dinner. We then went as a group (35+ of us!) on a tram to Neustadt (New Town). Our RA's took us to a hookah bar and showed us a couple of clubs around. We went to a place called Katy's Garage, and I really liked the music. The dancing here is a lot different, which is awesome. It's much more fun to dance in a large group as opposed to pairs.
Friday was a fun day, but a lot of walking again. We started with a bus tour of Dresden, which is where most of my pictures are from. We were going to do just a driving tour, but Dresden's Stadtfest (town festival/fair thingy) is this weekend, so they were setting up and the traffic was terrible. I was happy to get out of the bus and walk around though, it was absolutely beautiful. Dresden is an unique European city because it is 800 years old, but all the old buildings were destroyed by the bombing or the firestorm in WWII. Thus, even though some of the buildings LOOK old, none of them were built before the end of the Soviet era. If details were known about the buildings, they were built as historically accurate as possible. My favorite was the church built using the remaining stones (and mostly new ones) and the refurbished courtyard. The courtyard was built to celebrate the wedding of Augustus the Strong's (king of Poland and electorate of Saxony) son and a princess of Austria. For three weeks, 1000 guests had 15-20 course meals with entertainment, live music, and dancing. It was so beautiful. The rest of the city tour was really interesting and our guide knew so much about the history of Dresden.
After we got back from the tour, we went as a group to T-mobile to get our cellphones and the bookstore to pick up our books. Travelling in a group of 15 makes everything take excessively long, so we got back to the rooms at about 5:00. I read for a while, then Zeynep and I cooked dinner. I was tired, but Zeynep convinced me we should go out to Stadtfest, the town festival. We were there for a few hours, but we were both really tired. We ate a tasty crepe with caramelized onions, chives, and butter. I'm super excited to go back tonight; it reminds me of a fair and the food is ridiculously good. Hopefully I'll have some pictures posted on photobucket or facebook by the end of the day today
Tschüss,
Lani
So the adventure began on Sunday. I woke up and hurried around getting my shit together to take the Megabus at 7:30. I ate McDonalds for breakfast and messed around on the computer on the free WiFi. The bus ride took about five hours, so we got into NYC at 12:30. I didn't have much time to enjoy the city (although, to be honest, it scares me shitless) because I hopped in a cab to take me to JFK. It was a long and boring car ride, and I texted friends goodbye through most of it. I got to the airport at around 1:30. While I was waiting in line to check my bags, I ran into Janhavee, a girl from a class first semester who is also on my program. She invited me to eat lunch with her family in JFK's food court, which was fun. Then I went through security while she said goodbye to her family. I got to my gate with 2+ hours to spare, so I called Ma and Dad, talked to Anthony and Laurel for a bit. As the time to board got closer, I met a lot of people in my program. We had a fun time talking about how none of us know German.
Then the first plane ride. Our flight was from JFK to Munchen (Munich) then Munchen to Dresden. JFK to Munchen is nine hours in the air, plus take off/landing time. It was easily the biggest plan I've ever been on. The great part about the flight was that it was not full by any means, I had a bank of three seats all to myself. I slept for a few hours, but then I couldn't (despite getting four hours of sleep the night before), so I watched three movies. We got to the Munchen airport at six AM GT (German Time). We waited for our connecting flight for literally three and a half hours. It was terrible. Then we got onto a smaller plane and flew into Dresden. It was now 12:30 PM, and I had been awake for 30 hours on four hours of sleep beforehand. Needless to say, everyone in our group was exhausted. We all wanted to sleep away our jet lag. But we had other plans.
We did some basic orientation things: here are the keys to your dorms (the doors lock automatically, do NOT leave your keys in the room), etc. etc. My room is actually the best on the floor (and the best in the program, as far as I've seen). We all live in singles, and most rooms are clearly singles: there is room for a bed, a desk, a dresser, a tall bookshelf, and a small table and chair. My room was definitely meant to be a double. I have all my furniture on one side and it looks NAKED. I told all the girls on my floor we could have one side of my room as a sort of common room. I hope they take me up on it; I enjoy studying and eating in groups. Hopefully some of the other people in our program not on our floor (we're on the second, third, and fifth floors of the Max Kade Haus). The rest of Monday is a very tired blur. We went to the free room where previous participants left the things they weren't taking back (duvets, books, hangers, trash cans and the like). I rearranged my furniture the way I wanted it, and unpacked. Most people went out to the bar that is in our dorm (Germans), but I knew I was too tired, so I slept for close to thirteen hours.
Tuesday morning, I was woken at seven by a church bell. Not just seven chimes of a church bell, easily over a MINUTE of it ringing. My RA Debbie says that it does that every week day, and rings at 9:30 on the weekends. I will never sleep in ever again. Tuesday was a busy, busy day. We registered as foreign students with the city of Dresden (Germany LOVES paperwork, apparently), and opened a bank account in Dresden so our stipends can be deposited (which is good...so poor). We ate lunch at a Menza (cafeteria), that reminded me of an American cafeteria almost exactly. The two differences were that you paid per item, and the background chatter was in German. We also paid our security deposits, then I took a nap, then we went to Ikea (pronounced EE-KAY-AH here). I bought some necessary things for me (another towel, a duvet cover, a blanket, a pillow) and took the tram. The trains here are nicer than anything I've ever seen in the US. They are clean, quiet, perfectly on time (they have a display screen telling you when every number bus/tram is coming), and a super-smooth ride. Tuesday everyone went out again, and this time I was up to it. I drank a few beers at the bar and headed home. I was still tired, and funny thing, alcohol doesn't help that at all!
Wednesday I woke up late, but luckily my group waited for me as I threw on jeans and a sweater. We went back to campus to listen to "Health and Safety," your standard college bullshit about not being irresponsible. I get irritated at listening to things like that, but I know that some people need to hear them. We got our student handbooks, which our director Silke made for us. They have a TON of useful information. What the city of Dresden has to offer, what TUD has, all the dates of our group excursions (I won't give you a list, it'll spoil the surprise!) and a ton of good phrases for different situations (bank, buying a train ticket). Silke is the BEST. She is such a sweet lady and you can tell she wants us to love it here. It's very funny because I'm used to university bureaucrats at BU saying "I'll get that done for you" and then it takes two weeks. When Silke says she'll get something done for us, she does it three hours later! Love that about Germans. We ate at another Menza, and I had German schnitzel for the first time. Everyone said it wasn't as good as restaurant schnitzel (cafeteria food is the same globally, haha), but I thought it was tasty. I'm still getting used to eating more at lunch than dinner. We then had a really, really long walking tour of TUD. It's the oldest technical university in Germany, and the campus is monstrous. The walk from our dorm (Max Kade Haus) to the classroom buildings is easily forty minutes. Some people want to get bikes, but I think I'm just going to suck it up and work on my calf muscles. We got back from the tour and just hung out for a while, then me and two friends went to a CVS-like store (called dm) because I forgot conditioner and they wanted hand soap. We went to the grocery store and then had a group dinner. That was a lot of fun. We came back, went to the bar for a little while, then called it a night. I think people were still pretty jet-lagged, but it was mostly gone by Thursday morning.
Thursday I woke up ridiculously late because I kept getting woken up at six and seven by huge, loud garbage trucks and sirens and general noise. I did some organizing, then we took special "biometric" pictures for our student IDs. They were freaking expensive, which is annoying because I am poor. Then we did a little grocery shopping and ate dinner. We then went as a group (35+ of us!) on a tram to Neustadt (New Town). Our RA's took us to a hookah bar and showed us a couple of clubs around. We went to a place called Katy's Garage, and I really liked the music. The dancing here is a lot different, which is awesome. It's much more fun to dance in a large group as opposed to pairs.
Friday was a fun day, but a lot of walking again. We started with a bus tour of Dresden, which is where most of my pictures are from. We were going to do just a driving tour, but Dresden's Stadtfest (town festival/fair thingy) is this weekend, so they were setting up and the traffic was terrible. I was happy to get out of the bus and walk around though, it was absolutely beautiful. Dresden is an unique European city because it is 800 years old, but all the old buildings were destroyed by the bombing or the firestorm in WWII. Thus, even though some of the buildings LOOK old, none of them were built before the end of the Soviet era. If details were known about the buildings, they were built as historically accurate as possible. My favorite was the church built using the remaining stones (and mostly new ones) and the refurbished courtyard. The courtyard was built to celebrate the wedding of Augustus the Strong's (king of Poland and electorate of Saxony) son and a princess of Austria. For three weeks, 1000 guests had 15-20 course meals with entertainment, live music, and dancing. It was so beautiful. The rest of the city tour was really interesting and our guide knew so much about the history of Dresden.
After we got back from the tour, we went as a group to T-mobile to get our cellphones and the bookstore to pick up our books. Travelling in a group of 15 makes everything take excessively long, so we got back to the rooms at about 5:00. I read for a while, then Zeynep and I cooked dinner. I was tired, but Zeynep convinced me we should go out to Stadtfest, the town festival. We were there for a few hours, but we were both really tired. We ate a tasty crepe with caramelized onions, chives, and butter. I'm super excited to go back tonight; it reminds me of a fair and the food is ridiculously good. Hopefully I'll have some pictures posted on photobucket or facebook by the end of the day today
Tschüss,
Lani
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